Sunday, June 23, 2013

One
thing that’s been lost on my current blog and Tumblr is that my
Zentradi obsession started with seeing the Robotech dub in 2008, and
that a couple years ago, I spent my time tearing way through every old,
forgotten Robotech novel and comic I could find. I still like some parts
of those, hate others (especially the lack of good original characters
and the suggestion that the Zentradi/human alliance was
self-destructive), and overall would say that I don’t hate Robotech as a
concept and a franchise.

However,
I quickly understood that continuing Robotech past the 1990s wasn’t
going to go anywhere storywise. The legal restrictions were much
tighter, with the new sequel comics killing off every old character they
could, and releases of new material getting more and more sporadic. The Shadow Chronicles,
the animated film from that era, apparently took forever to make but
was still boring crap, and the long-questioned sequel failed to
materialize.

Recently,
it’s been said that Robotech will finally...uh...be...moving ahead with
“Love, Live Alive”. The original “Love, Live, Alive” was a sequel OVA
to Genesis Climber Mospeda,
the anime that was dubbed into the third part of Robotech. It mostly
consisted of animated music videos, with a tiny amount of original
footage.

Yet
the trailer shows new footage from the “Shadows” universe that is the
new Robotech, which is probably exciting to the small core of die-hard
fans that have been waiting to see the Shadows universe continued, and
this will probably supplement the short animation from the original LLA.
Hey, guys, knock yourselves out.

But
I just couldn’t keep going with this, and I can’t get back into that
fold. I know that nothing will really change with this franchise. It’ll
always keep scrabbling in its current rut.

Part
of me thinks that modern Robotech would be inherently doomed no matter
what talent was behind it, since a good story usually would tie up all
its loose ends, deal decently with all its characters and its plot
points, and Robotech can’t even manage that because it doesn’t have
access to these things. Dancing around the characters or setting the
story in the far-flung future wouldn’t be solving this problem, but
avoiding the issue. It’s a trap.

Yet
I don’t want to let the writers off the hook that easily. It still
might have been possible to create something decent and fulfilling
despite the legal restraints, but it looked like Tommy Yune and everyone
else didn’t even try. The minds behind Robotech in the 21st century
just keep promoting the same junk over and over again, going to cons
with all the other active companies to pretend they are actually doing
something.

Meanwhile,
Harmony Gold spends money and makes empty promises, with the only
things to show for it being some sporadic toy and RPG manual releases, a
few comics, and one extremely boring movie. All of it sucks, can’t even
be enjoyed on an emotional level.

It
was painful and pathetic to watch, and after a while I stopped feeling
hurt by it. I also stopped feeling sorry for the fans who still believed
Robotech would make something of itself. After all that had happened,
anyone should have been able to see the writing on the wall. The
franchise is dead, but somebody’s still dangling its corpse on
marionette strings.

As
to the prospect of a live-action Robotech movie, well, that’s also a
nigh-impossibility. Asking it to be one forgets that, unlike other
popular eighties cartoons, Robotech wasn’t made as a single work by a
single company, but three separate anime redubbed to be one series. That
makes it harder to adapt than, say, Transformers. I wish people would
remember that.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

I
can’t remember when I first heard about Jim Woodring; it must have been
on one of my many tries to Understand the History of All Mediums that
Involve Writing. I always meant to read his comics, but because there’s
so much out there, it takes something distinctive to remind you to read
someone’s work.

In
this case, it was hearing about the time Jim Woodring made a giant fountain
pen and tried to use it. Good enough.

So
far, what I’ve read of Jim Woodring are his Frank stories, but not even
all of those. The Frank stories are a series of silent (mis)adventures
with a small cast of creatures and some walk-ons, set in a place of
minarets and rolling hills called the Unifactor. The usual protagonist
is Frank, an old-school cartoon creature of deliberately undefined
species. Often by his side is Pupshaw, a pyramidal ring-tailed creature
who serves as Frank’s “dog” but is far more powerful than he, and who
has a boyfriend of similar make named Pushpaw.

Manhog
is a disturbing man-pig-thing who is hurt in gory and pathetic ways but
also might be the victim of karma. Sometimes there is a devilish
critter named Whim, and vajra-like creatures called Jivas come through
the sky. There are others like Quacky, Faux Pa, Lucky, Real Pa, Cart
Blanche, and the Jerry Chickens. Also, lots and lots of frogs and
frog-like beings.

The
Unifactor stories are soundless, told in pantomime, and are short and
simple in the compilation book I have, called (yeah) “The Frank Book”,
though longer stories exist in other graphic novels. There is no doubt a
deeply personal unspoken language in these tales, but they can be
enjoyed on a surface level. I know that I liked them very much, since I
love surreal settings and weird creatures.

I
just love the people who can think and write like this. When faced with
a bizarre, dreamlike, or stream-of-conscious mode of storytelling, I
nearly always believe that it was what the author naturally desired and
sought. They weren’t trying to swindle anyone with fake “depth”, but
simply told the story they wanted. Sometimes earnestness produces
weirdness and not simplicity.

Of
course, for Woodring it all hasn’t been wonderful. Profiles of him tell
the story of a childhood plagued with hallucinations, sickness, and
paranoia. It’d be dangerous to believe this is what made him the great
artist that he is today.

But I look forward to reading more of his books.

I’ve
posted it before, but the video above is a collection of excerpts from
Visions of Frank, a 2007 DVD that contained animated Frank shorts by
independent Japanese animators. The DVD itself seems to be vanished,
which is a shame.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

--According
to Wikipedia, this is the first of the episodes that aired after the
series moved to CBS, but not the first episode of season four. I've got
no idea either way, since I never kept track of the series’ change from
syndication to network when I was young. I also can't say I notice any
radical changes in tone or presentation from the earlier episodes, but I
tend to be slow on the uptake when it comes to things like this. Only
the very radical changes to a TV series’ tone and format do I notice.

--But
this is officially my favourite Baxterfly episode, surpassing "Enter:
The Fly" if we're talking about qualities besides "what came first"
(with “Landlord of the Flies” being the worst). "Son of Return of the
Fly II" is just so goddamn hilarious, one of those episodes of the
original cartoon that hits the mark of being so ridiculous it's great,
episodes that are too few in number. It’s also fairly well-plotted with
some expressive animation.

--I
can't look at the title "Son of Return of the Fly II" without thinking
of the joke that "The Venture Brothers" made with "Return to the House
of Mummies: Part 2", in which there deliberately never was a part one,
just to make it more surreal and confusing. This episode’s title,
however, is simply mashing up common B-movie titles like always. I enjoy
that about most Baxterfly episodes: it’s cute.

--However,
the early parts with Mr. Mellish and the Solid Energy Generator are
dull, and there’s not much to say about them. A little payoff comes at
the end, but otherwise, we’ll skip it.

--And does Baxter quote the Wicked Witch of the West when he says, "What a world!"?

--Crying
Baxterfly might make you soft towards him, but you also realize that
the reason he's crying is that he can't go back to Earth and get his
all-important revenge. Still, it's an unusual thing for this series to
show a villain doing, and I’m a little bit sorry for Baxter, of course.

--The
crying also demonstrates how much more childlike Baxter’s new
characterization is, though Baxter doesn’t act as infantile in his later
episodes. And he’s hardly ever a bastion of maturity anyway, but in
this episode his immaturity really sticks out.

--Of
course, it's never explained how the ship's computer transformed into a
desktop PC, or how Baxter got out of the inter-dimensional spider's
web, which was the peril they were in at the end of the previous
Baxterfly episode. But it doesn't matter that much, really, except to
make me wonder if the ending of "Bye Bye Fly" was originally intended to
serve as Baxter's gruesome offscreen fate. Whew.

--To
add to the disconnect between this episode and the previous one, the
computer's mannerisms seem different. He seems more mature, with a
deeper voice and a leadership role, as well as now constantly calling
Baxter “pal” and “buddy”.

--I
enjoyed the previous episodes where Baxter acts largely on his own, him
not being quite so reliant on the computer in "Bye, Bye Fly", but the
whole thing with the computer is just wonderfully strange: Seth Brundle
and HAL 9000 in a weird co-dependent relationship. The more I rewatch
these episodes, the funnier that gets.

--Part
of the humour comes from the possibility that the computer would betray
Baxter if the need arose, meaning that Baxter's life would get even
more hilariously terrible when his only ally betrays him.

----The relationship also sort of adorable, in a twisted way.

--Because
it’s so much fun, I really wish the computer had a damn name. The fan
name "Zee" or "Z" is used often, but nobody knows where it came from,
and I'm reluctant to use it because it's fanon.

--(Also, when the computer gets that energy body, it looks like he's naked. There; now you can’t unsee that)

--Baxter
going after the sugar makes me giggle. It also reminds me of the scene
in Cronenberg's "The Fly" when one of the first clues that Seth is
changing is how much sugar and cream he puts in his coffee. This
connection is probably unintentional, given that there's a lot of
evidence that the writers only drew on the original "The Fly".

--The
computer's constant complement-feeding comes off as incredibly smarmy,
especially since he can obviously can see how dumb Baxter is. But the
fact that this is kept up without Baxter being sold out is interesting,
since one character secretly manipulating another long-term is subtle by
FW standards. And by those same low standards, the relationship is
refreshingly ambiguous.

--Baxter's
side of it seems to be genuine, though, as he seems to chase the main
villains back to Channel 6 because he knows they're going after the
computer, and joins in the tug-of-war over the computer man. He calls
the computer "My friend" and says, "Thank you," to him.

--Which
is always funny to me because I remember the human Baxter hating
artificial intelligence for some inexplicable reason in "The Mean
Machines", and being unusually pissy about it. The writers probably
don't remember the difference, but I like it.

--The
funniest parts are by far how incredibly addled Baxter is. He's asked
to kidnap April, and instead kidnaps Vernon, *twice* (“That’s not even a
woman”), can't remember her name for more than a second, and keeps
walking through walls. I know it's not the good way to write a villain,
but I laugh so hard.

--At
the same time, it's a tiny bit sad that a former scientist, even one as
nebbish and evil as Baxter was, keeps losing his faculties, is unable
to perform the simplest tasks, and doing things like thinking a portal
or a plot device are food.

--The
fuss made over Baxter's footprint has always struck me as weird, if for
no reason other than Baxter's feet look almost the same as the Turtles'
and nobody seems to notice. But naturally, Splinter is the first one to
figure stuff out.

--As
I said above, I think Baxter's computer is a parody of Hal 9000, and
his taking over the station could be another homage to the film.
Especially since "Invasion of the Turtle Snatchers" already had a
reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

--"Because I'm a big fly!" Impeccable logic, there, Baxter.

--I
love the clock tower trap: very Adam West Batman. Though I also can't
help but think of the Edgar Allan Poe story, "A Predicament", when a
woman gets her head cut off by the hand of a clock.

--Raphael seems to be quoting Joan Rivers when he asks, "Baxter, can we talk?"

--Another
indication of Baxter’s childishness is when he yells to the absent
Shredder: "You come here now! Or else you'll never have revenge against
Turtles! Never, ever, ever!"

--"By Ninja Law…." I can believe the Shredder made that up.

--I love Baxter smacking Shredder and Rocksteady's heads together using both sets of arms.

--"Only the most highly-skilled ninja master could get out of these ropes." [Leo cuts Donnie free] "Hi, Leonardo." Love that exchange.

--Veteran fans of the Fred Wolf cartoon like to point out that certain
episodes had a more fluid, cartoony art style, and I’m pretty sure “Son
of Return of the Fly II” fits into the slot. It suits the comedy in the
episode, and is actually all-around nice and expressive, including rare
background movement.

--I love the computer's facial expressions, too. He looks very smug and evil.

--Oh, hey, you can see Bebop's eyes near the end for a few seconds.

--The
"Destruction of other people's property...." running joke is great
here. Raphael being annoyed with Donatello over it also cracks me up
every time.

--The
twist that Mr. Mellish is a mercenary, money-hungry bastard and could
have blown up that chip at any time but didn't because of the potential
profit is also great. It's a little sharper than the show's normal
humour, but that's also the style of cartoon humour that I prefer, and
one I wish the old show dipped into more often.

--And
there goes Baxter, stuck between dimensions. This is why I can't get so
broken up over "Revenge of the Fly", when several Baxter episodes had
already ended like that. It's just that his episodes stopped, not that
there was real finality. And this encourages emotional attachments to
have only the lightest touch, which also means it’s hard to get upset.

--Why
the heck is Vernon shaving in the office, and just after a major
incident? It's a really bad set-up for that final joke this show often
makes, when it looks like the enemy of the episode might be back, but it
turns out to be something harmless.

--But
overall, this was the kind of hilarious, insane episode that makes the
OT memorable. It's also well-plotted and executed enough to stand out on
a different level. And again, my favourite Baxterfly episode.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Sometimes,
earnestness and elegance can make you take an absurd imagine completely
seriously; ditto for the story that’s built around it. Haibane Renmei’s
(High-bah-NAY Ren-MAY’s) main visual, that of otherwise ordinary people
sporting halos and tiny angel wings, might look ridiculous by itself,
but the thirteen-episode anime transforms it into something wondrous and
moving.

The
viewpoint character is Rakka, the newest Haibane, and through her
viewers understand the rules of her world. Haibane are “born” from
cocoons in the city of Glie, and named for the dream they had before
“birth”; Rakka is named for a dream of falling. She is provided with a
halo, wings break from her back, and she must find her place at the
Haibane nest of “Old Home”, an abandoned school.

Haibane
live a mostly idyllic existence, but must take jobs in the town, and
must only use discarded goods, except for their food. A wall also
surrounds the town of Glie, which must never be touched and can never be
crossed, since no one in town has any flying machines, and the Haibane
themselves cannot fly.

Each
Haibane is aware that they had a past life in the world outside, but
that they cannot remember who they were. They all await their “Day of
Flight”, in which a Haibane disappears for parts unknown. Rakka must
overcome her own shock at a friend’s “Day of Flight”, and find it in
herself to help Reki, a troubled older Haibane who has never taken the
Day.

Although
it is only thirteen episodes long, Haibane Renmei proceeds at a slow,
leisurely pace. Nothing is loud or bombastic, and many things go
unexplained. When the emotions cut deep, they are still subdued. It’s a
sweet and intriguing experience, and weirdly soothing.

The exact nature of the Haibane is never explained, save that it’s likely they are not explicitly

Christian
creations, since anime tends to use Christian imagery for special
flavour instead of religious expression. However, that doesn’t mean that
the Haibane cannot be tied to more general notions of sin and release.

A
common theory is that the Haibane represent suicides and/or premature
death, since suicide is likely not applicable to the “Young Feathers”,
the gaggle of tiny toddler Haibane that also live in Old Home. It is
thought that their new names have something to do with how they died.
The “Day of Flight” is read as their ascent to heaven, perhaps after
overcoming the “sin” of dying before their time, and the rules that
Haibane live under are “punishment”. Or it is a morally neutral
condition, and is simply the restoration of the natural order.

The
soft nature of the series might make it hard to notice, but Haibane
Renmei teaches some harsh lessons about grieving. That no matter how sad
you are, you must accept that people are gone. Both Rakka and Reki
struggle with the notion of the Day of Flight, but must learn to accept
that it has happened, and will keep happening..

These
theories still leave unanswered questions (such as why Haibane age),
but that is one of the popular theories. However, Haibane Renmei is one
of those works that leaves a viewer content to accept that some things
will remain mysteries.

Nothing
of what has been said makes Haibane Renmei a bleak series, but simply
gives it an extra distinction. Just because a series says some pragmatic
things does not mean that it’s bleak.

Another
interesting thing about Haibane Renmei is that nearly all of the
characters are female, including all of the main characters. Each of
them are distinct and memorable, with very different personalities.

Old
Home only houses women women and small children, but the Haibane of
Abandoned Factory are co-ed, which means it’s not one of those weird
things where only women can be Haibane.

Nor is it one of those other
weird things, where a primarily female cast are really a set of “types”
for the male audience to choose from, something that has become popular
in recent years. Rakka and her friends exist “for themselves” and not
for emotional titillation. The distinction is difficult to define, and
ultimately relies on intuiting it.

Haibane
Renmei is a good series. It’s got an interesting premise, a soothing
atmosphere, and quickly became one of my favourite anime. I’ve heard
it’s recently been re-released, so go check it out.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

--So, I picked out a couple Baxterfly episodes for myself to review, to
round out a small and incomplete batch of FW Baxter Stockman episodes. I
might pick out a few Splinter-centric episodes to do, since both are my
favourite characters in the show, but Splinter is much harder to write
about, since his episodes often involve things happening with
him, and not to him, and Splinter is almost never not on top of things.
That makes him an easy character for a child to admire, a hard
character for an adult to write about

--And
at the moment any review of my other favourite episodes of the old
cartoon would involve a series of “wasn’t it funny when...” posts which
just aren't that interesting. It’s sometimes hard for me to write about
the old cartoon, which is in a weird zone between childhood and now.

--Anyway,
turning into a fly seems to be considered the most interesting and
memorable thing Baxter Stockman has ever done. Everybody keeps
speculating on when new versions of the character are going to go Gregor
Samsa (only to be disappointed), and fanart of the character largely
consists of Baxterfly and nothing else.

--But
to me, turning into a fly doesn't define Baxter Stockman. The character
has been portrayed in different ways in different media, with only his
profession and the Mousers being totally consistent. This particular
transformation is confined to a single era of TMNT, and so is hardly
defining when it’s a number’s game.

--Of
course, I know Baxterfly became paramount because of how
nostalgia-driven the TMNT fandom can be. Anything from the era of the
initial media blitz is defined by childhood, where the old cartoon and
original toyline were the only things one knew, and when mutants were
always more interesting than human characters. Naturally, everyone is
going to remember him as a fly first.

--Baxter's new personality also probably makes him a more appealing character, which I'll discuss below.

--Even
so, I don’t think of ol' Cracker Stockman as a fly. The first reason is
because, while I do like Baxterfly, he's the nadir, the absolute
endpoint of the character's failure, with so much built up before that.
He started out as a human character, and had an equal amount of screen
time in both forms.

--Furthermore, I love broken, fucked-up characters, and it’s easier to
get that vibe off human Baxter, that sense of failure beyond just being
the "bad guy" and therefore doomed to lose. Baxterfly can also be seen
this way, but is more your comical B-Movie villain swearing “Rrrevenge!”
on those that wronged him, than that type of nebbish little wreck that I
often enjoy in fiction.

--Okay, on with the real episode:

--I
always liked that despite his goofiness, Baxter's inventions usually
worked, because it's an engaging contrast. That the ray thingy doesn't
work is for plot convenience, to directly motivate the Shredder throwing
out Baxter. But it fits him, because Baxter is a failure.

--"[...]
reverse the polarity"--David Wise didn't write this episode, but
there's his standard Dr. Who reference. I wish I'd gotten into that
franchise....

--Why
does Splinter have a microwave in his meditation room, with a
convenient pizza right next to his tatami mat? Not to mention that he is
meditating in a different room than his usual one, but that is a
standard cartoon inconsistency.

--Splinter
looks perpetually sad for a good part of this episode, even before
April’s collapse, which is interesting. I'm supposing it's to show that
he's worried about the Shredder's scheme, even if said scheme is now
relegated to the status of "decoy" plot. If that's true, points for
consistency.

--I
love Shredder's line while on the garbage barge, explaining why there
are there: "Becasue this is the site [Krang] chose for the
trans-dimensional convergence. I think he did it just to annoy me!" The
writers really struck comedy gold with the Krang / Shredder dynamic.

--I
know a lot of other viewers believe Baxter's fate was written by his
actions in "Curse of the Evil Eye", but if it were, the Shredder would
have had no reason to wait to act, especially not with "The Case of the
Killer Pizzas" happening between these two episodes. The writers just
didn’t care about following up on Baxter’s punishment.

--I'm
not too agitated though: I’m very aware of the principle that even
goofy cartoon villains should be held to standards, but I can make an
exception just this once. I'd rather have Baxter around for a bit more
rather than have FW Shredder actually do something proactive.

--I
understand why Baxter was mutated, I understand why Bebop and
Rocksteady were kept around longer, and why the latter were brought back
into the spotlight and might always have intended to be: mutant
characters, and "manly" (speaking relatively) mutants, especially, would
be more interesting to the target audience.

--The
way the Shredder refers to April as the Turtles' "weakest point" means
the writers aren't even trying to hide the fact that April is put down
because of her gender.

--But
the plan is sort of clever. It's like the Shredder knows the stupidity
of everyone in this universe, so that April would not be at all
suspicious of a mysterious package even though she's been a target of
supervillains before.

--Not that fans ever need the fuel, but I wonder if the flower trap didn't endear at least some to the idea of Shredder x April.

--Splinter still looks sad when April opens the door. Then he has something else to be sad about.

--I
actually like that April establishes herself as uninterested in a
potential love affair with any of the Turtles, which is what she thinks
the flowers represent. You so rarely see fantasy fiction consider the
idea that hey, maybe a human woman wouldn't' be interested in the
affections of a being that wasn't human. Which ties into lots of issues
about double standards that I won't get into here.

--And
hey, while I don't take back anything I've ever said against FW April,
at least she is not relegated to the role of "love interest" because of
this, which is also sadly rare.

--Also, "doku" is Japanese for "poison". How literal-minded.

--I
don't take FW Baxter's life and fate 100% earnestly as something sad
and terrible, but in this happy little cartoon universe, Krang was going
to kill him in cold blood. That’s pretty fucked up.

--(And then part of me finds that incongruity hilarious)

---I
always think it a little ridiculous when Shredder and Krang refer to
themselves as "scientists" at various points. They never show much
evidence of these skills, and it's overkill to think they would have
these specializations on top of being supervillain leaders.

--While
I love David Cronenberg's "The Fly" preceding and independent of any
interest in Baxter Stockman, I’m certain Baxterfly draws more on the
original 1958 "The Fly". It’s the TMNT cartoon's parodies of older
monster movies, the running gag of Baxter squealing "Help me!", the
classic Fly having human clothing, and that the teleportation device in
the original film was called the "disintegrator-integrator" which is
probably reflected in the name of the Technodrome's disintegrator unit.
All of it adds up, but I can’t help associating him with Cronenberg’s
version anyway. “Baxterfly” is a play on “Brundlefly”, after all.

--I also like Baxterfly's cartoon design, because it's accidentally
adorable/goofy-looking, and bright and colourful. I prefer it over the
visual experiments to create a "darker" Baxterfly, or even the look of
the toy.

--In the scene where the Turtles enter and first see April in the sickbed, Splinter is drawn with very strange, deer-like ears.

--"And
you let [Baxter] escape through the portal? Brilliant!" / "I didn't
have to warn you, you know." More great stuff from Shredder and Krang.

--Now,
as to why viewers might prefer Baxtefly beyond "mutants are cool",
well, the contrast between the weak and passive Baxter and the angry and
active Baxterfly is amusing, and could also get viewers' attention. He
blows away two Rock Soldiers, and zips right towards his former
employers, ready to attack. Even later, when the computer is the one
leading him, Baxter still finds time to be an active threat. That
probably makes him a more "worthwhile" villain to viewers.

--However,
we can already see the other ways Baxter's personality will alter, as
he's easily duped by the Shredder, and points out, "You always liked
these mutants better!". He gets even dumber, acts more like a child,
etc. But other viewers might actually like it more when Baxter becomes
even sillier, but without being as whiny as before. Together, this makes
the character more interesting.

--But
I always go back to the 4Kids Stockman, who is the best version of
Baxter Stockman and who has a lot of traits in common with FW Baxter.
Stockman’s personality was kept consistent with his transformation, and
that's the personal ideal for me, because it builds a stronger character
arc.

--However,
it’s still good to pre-establish a human character before he mutates so
that his transformation can have some impact on the character if not
the plot. I understand why that's usually not feasible for a TMNT
show--gotta get those toys on the shelves!--but I'm glad it happened
here.

--Insect eyes don't see in individual facets.

--Lest we forget, "the bughouse" is also slang for an insane asylum.

--"Enter
the Fly" is one of the old cartoon's better attempts to pull off having
an A and B plot, but despite that, and despite the need to be strapped
for time, the fact that the plant is right where they thought it would
be is a little annoying.

--The
Knucklehead's controls look like an adding machine, which is pretty
funny, though maybe whoever desiged the props was just lazy. Because
Shredder also has a laser-shooting device that looks like a camera.

--There
are some nice fight sequences scattered through this episode, though it
starts to get less interesting near the end, when it’s just a bunch of
fight scenes.

--Shredder
makes a slight "^_^" face when he realizes he still has the gazai
plant. Actually, he makes that face several times in this episode.

--Splinter
establishes a message of perseverance, and the Turtles vow to leave no
stone unturned in their search, but Shredder conveniently shows up to
give them a way to go. Uhmm...the principle is still valuable?

--I
love what a cynical bastard Fred Wolf Raphael is. If Raphael’s sarcasm
and sassiness wasn't just a Fred Wolf invention, he might have had a
chance at becoming my favourite Turtle. As it is, I still don't have
one, and it's not for lack of trying.

--Yes,
I suppose Shredder doesn't have to sacrifice all his strategic thinking
in the name of goofiness, but I'm not all that invested in seeing this
balance kept. Lord knows I didn't come here

--Splinter
showing up in the Turtle Van is great. Like I said, I love it when the
secondary characters and "sidekicks" show up to help the main heroes
instead of passively sitting around. Also, my inner child loves seeing
Splinter get into the fray.

--And
Splinter blushing is super-adorable. I can guess that Mirage purists
probably at one point screamed at seeing Splinter described as "someone
who doesn't believe in violence". Cry more!

--Ah
jeez, another episode that ends with the apparent return of a threat,
only for it to be something completely harmless. Somebody, somewhere,
must have a tally of how many times the Fred Wolf show did this.

--I know some would have preferred Baxter remain one of the Shredder's minions, but I disagree for a bunch of reasons.

--First,
it’s pointless to change a character’s form and personality but not his
role. I know it was all predestined for marketing purposes, but even
so....

--Second,
some fun stories are told with Baxter as a wild card, working against
both the heroes and the villains. I especially love his relationship
with the alien computer, because of how bizarre and ambiguous (by this
series' standards) it is. That’s better than his just being a henchman.

--It
might also have been awkward for Baxter to keep hanging around the
people who kicked his ass on a daily basis and then tried to kill him,
but it’s easy to imagine Baxter being permanently lured into service
with the promise of becoming human again, episode after episode, since
he constantly gets fooled already.

--Not
that a few more episodes with Baxter Stockman wouldn’t have been
welcome, but he’s better as a recurring character than a regular.

--(And I never expected true closure for him, by the way. Or a return to human form.)

--So,
while I like White Baxter a little more as a human, Baxterfly is still
fun, and this is a good episode. It uses an A and B plot to mostly good
effect, has some nice pacing and action sequences, and yeah, it’s pretty
fun.

“Anime
is weird” is a stereotype I consider shed. With it might go a lot of
the sense that anime is an inherently “cool” thing, but at the same
time, now you or I can’t consider anime as this foreign, impenetrable
thing. When there is a weird anime, it’s weird on an individual level.

And boy, is FLCL (read as “Fooly Cooly” or “Furi Kuri”) weird. But I mean that in a good way (when don’t I, really?) because it’s tremendous fun to watch and there is a story to be told.

Naota
Nandaba is a very serious junior high student, trying so hard to be
mature for his age, especially when the adults around him are so
immature. Unfortunately, he has to contend with the inappropriate
affections of Mamimi Sameji, his absent brother’s (ex) girlfriend (?),
and the fact that a pink-haired, yellow-eyed woman on a Vespa has
smacked him with a guitar and now robots come out of his head sometimes.
And just what IS Medical Mechanica, the mysterious organization that’s
set up shop in town with giant steam iron-shaped headquarters?

Yeah.

The
message of FLCL isn’t profound: learn to act your age, or you’ll end up
a wreck of a human being like Commander Amaro, a guy who thinks he’s
grown-up but really isn’t. Naota should be a kid now, so that he’ll grow
up later. But the series is stuffed with so much vivid imagination and
bizarre innuendo that many can walk away happy.

There
are many things I love about FLCL: its strangeness and the way it all
manages to hang together despite that, the distinctive look and feel of
the animation and art, the soundtrack by Japanese band The Pillows
(“Ride on Shooting Star...”), and of course the robots. But the best
thing is Haruko Haruhara, aka Raharu, that alleged alien who blindsided
Naota in more ways than one.

After
whacking Naota, Haruko comes to live with the Nandaba family, claiming
to be a wandering maid. In some other anime, this would be a dream, but
FLCL makes it that much MORE awkward because of Naota’s younger age and
Haruko’s clear self-interest. She flirts with Naota outrageously, but
her true purpose is far more mercenary.

All
of this is disturbing, and doesn’t come off as entirely ironic, but
parts of it are funny. Yet what truly saves Haruko is what her agenda
is, and the fact that she is so delightfully uncouth. She picks her
nose, wriggles her toes, and scratches herself...when she’s not involved
in a frenzy of destruction or sexuality. A female character with this
bearing is sadly rare, but Haruko manages to pull it off. Even when
she’s obviously fetishized, Haruko comes off as totally in charge and
totally hilarious.

Haruko’s
entrance into Naota’s life ironically reveals his need to be a child,
and she seems to have some genuine affection for Naota, but she also
likes messing with him. I’m glad that she wasn’t just a special “alien
girlfriend”, or purely evil, but was a complex character.

FLCL
is only six episodes long, but it tells you..not everything, but enough
to follow the story once you realize what’s happening. There is a
beginning, middle, and end, and the entire thing is a damn joyful ride.
Haruko is the best thing about FLCL, but everything else hardly lags.
There’s nothing else like it, and that’s why it’s impossible to forget.